Russian shrimp producers switching focus to domestic market

Producers of sushi-quality raw frozen pink shrimp Pandalus borealis from the Russian Far East are paying more attention to the domestic market which has been actively rising in the recent years unlike the Japanese market facing stagnation and strengthening of competition. The latter has to do mostly with growing supply both from Russia and other countries, Argentina in particular.

According to informed sources in Vladivostok, wild Argentinean shrimp is a direct competitor on the Japanese market for raw frozen deepwater shrimp from the Russian Far East. The Argentinean shrimp is larger in terms of average size than the Russian product, but the Japanese say it is less tasty for raw eating. Supplies from Argentina have been making a serious impact on prices for the Russian shrimp, because the Japanese market for raw shrimp is fairly limited.

Some traders say that in 2007 Argentina opens a new fishing area for shrimp.

Every year starting approximately from 1997 Argentina has been supplying from 1000 to 4000 tonnes of shrimp to Japan. The supplies peaked in 2000 when the country exported 8800 tonnes of shrimp on a par with the shrimp supply from Russia.

Should in 2007 Argentina ship large volumes of shrimp to Japan, this would be a problem for the Russian exporters of raw frozen shrimp.